To make an apple tart. Take apples, peel them and grate them with a grater, afterwards fry them in fat. Then put in it as much grated cheese as apples, some ground cloves, a little ginger and cinnamon, two eggs. Stir it together well. Then prepare the dough as for a flat cake, put a small piece of fat into it so that it does not rise, and from above and below, weak heat, let it bake slowly.

Combine flour, salt and sugar. Use a pastry cutter or food processor to cut in the butter until it is reduced to pea-sized lumps. Add the water and stir until a dough forms, but do not over-kneed it. Press into a flattened ball and cover snugly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Roll out the crust using a floured surface and rolling pin, then transfer to a pie plate.

Combine flour, salt and sugar. Use a pastry cutter or food processor to cut in the butter until it is reduced to pea-sized lumps. Add the water and stir until a dough forms, but do not over-kneed it. Press into a flattened ball and cover snugly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Roll out the crust using a floured surface and rolling pin, then transfer to a pie plate.

Add the fillings and bake at 350° until crust is golden, around 45 minutes.

Sources

]]>http://simplethings.cavalletto.org/tartys-in-applis/feed/0Tourte Vertehttp://simplethings.cavalletto.org/tourte-verte/
http://simplethings.cavalletto.org/tourte-verte/#respondSun, 29 Oct 2017 21:37:42 +0000http://simplethings.cavalletto.org/?p=130Continue reading Tourte Verte]]>This spinach quiche comes from 14th C. France, where it was included in a book instructing housewives how to maintain their residence and carry out their wifely duties. While the marital advice is no longer relevant, many of the recipes are still quite useful.

To Make a Tart, take four handfuls of beets, two handfuls of parsley, an handful of chervil, a sprig of fennel and two handfuls of spinach, and pick them over and wash them in cold water, then cut them up very small; then bray with two sorts of cheese, to wit a hard and a medium, and then add eggs thereto, yolks and whites, and bray them in with the cheese; then put the herbs into the mortar and bray all together and also put therein some fine powder. Or instead of this have ready brayed in the mortar two heads of ginger and onto this bray your cheese, eggs and herbs and then cast aged cheese scraped and grated onto the herbs, and take it to the oven, and then you’ve made a tart and eat it hot.

Modern Redaction

Filling: a large bunch of chard, a small bunch of parsley, a small bunch of spinach, a few sprigs of tarragon, ¾ lb cheese (I used ½ lb edam and ¼ lb pave vechio), 3 Tbsp. goat cheese, 6 eggs, 1 tsp. spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg).

Wash the greens, chop them, and briefly steam to wilt.

Grate the cheeses, beat the eggs, and combine with other filling ingredients.

Combine flour, salt and sugar. Use a pastry cutter or food processor to cut in the butter until it is reduced to pea-sized lumps. Add the water and stir until a dough forms, but do not over-kneed it. Press into a flattened ball and cover snugly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Roll out the crust using a floured surface and rolling pin, then transfer to a pie plate.

Combine flour, salt and sugar. Use a pastry cutter or food processor to cut in the butter until it is reduced to pea-sized lumps. Add the water and stir until a dough forms, but do not over-kneed it. Press into a flattened ball and cover snugly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Roll out the crust using a floured surface and rolling pin, then transfer to a pie plate.

Add the fillings and bake at 350° until set, around 45 minutes.

Sources

]]>http://simplethings.cavalletto.org/ember-day-tart/feed/0List Poleshttp://simplethings.cavalletto.org/list-poles/
http://simplethings.cavalletto.org/list-poles/#respondMon, 22 May 2017 03:30:04 +0000http://simplethings.cavalletto.org.nmsrv.com/?p=13Continue reading List Poles]]>List poles provide a support for ropes used to enclose an area for medieval combat or other activities.

Objectives

I expected I’d find existing plans I could copy for this purpose, but ended up designing my own because I couldn’t find any that fit our needs.

Self-supporting. In some places you can simply pound stakes into the ground, but here in New York City, a design with legs will allows us to hold events on asphalt, or in public parks where we’re not allowed to make holes in the lawn.

Compact and portable. When we’re not at events, these are going to sit in a crate in our small apartment, and then be ferried around in a van packed full of passengers, so they need to collapse down to a reasonable size.

Simple. I built six of these one a weekend in my home office with a couple of hand-held power tools.

Affordable. I spent around $40 on materials for the six poles ($30 lumber, $10 paint), plus $30 for 100′ of rope.

Materials

Common 2×6 (1.5”x5.5”), two pieces 24” long per pole, used to form the legs.

Paint or varnish, approximately 2oz per unit, whichever color or style you prefer. We painted the legs green and the poles white, but any colors would work.

Rope or cord of some sort; I bought 100′ of 3/8” braided poly “derby” rope in our provincial livery colors.

Steps

Cut lumber to length. Optionally cut one end of each 5.5” piece of 2×2 at a 30° angle.

Cut rounded corners off of each leg board. A suggested pattern is attached in PDF format. This is optional but recommended; it makes the legs lighter, less obtrusive, and more attractive.

Cut a 1.5” x 2.75” notch out of the center of each leg board. Make sure to produce alternating pairs, one notched on the top and one on the bottom.

Sand leg boards smooth, rounding over any sharp corners. Test fit them together in pairs, sliding the notches over each another, and sand, file, or chisel away any additional material required to let them slide easily into place.

Assemble pairs of legs, place the pole upright in corner where they meet, and glue a short piece of 2×2 to each leg, surrounding the pole.

Do not glue the pole into place, and don’t glue the legs to each other!

Use clamps to hold short pieces in place while they dry, then optionally add one or two screws. (Glue is probably sufficient.)

Repeat for each pair of legs, being consistent about which side of the crossing the supports are glued to so that any of the upper legs can be used with any of the lower legs.

Drill a 0.5” hole through one end of each pole about 1.25″ from the top to hold the rope.

Paint everything and allow to dry thoroughly.

Optionally cut 7″–7.5″ lengths of cord, feed them through the holes on the end of the posts, and bind into a loop.

I did this by roughly stitching the ends together with some thread, covering the junction with glue and rotating it into the hole, then tapping a small nail through the pole on each side to pin both ends of the rope into place.

This is optional, as you could just feed the list rope through the hole, or tie it around the top of the post, but the loop allows the list rope to slide through smoothly or be bound in place as shown below.

Setup

Select a pole and a pair of legs with alternating notches.

Line up the notches and slide the legs together.

Fit the end of the pole into the resulting pocket.

Feed the list rope through the loop at the top of the post.

Alternately, bring the list rope along the side of the pole, gather a small bend of it and feed it through the loop, then wrap it around the far side of the pole.

Finally, if you bind a loop into the end of your rope, you can simply set it around the top of one of the poles.

Storage

At the end of the day, the pieces can be slid apart and packed into a crate for transport. We found that with a bit of careful packing, all six poles can be stood on end in a common 13″ storage cube (or milk crate).

Evaluation

I’m pleased with how these turned out. They’re attractive and fit in to the scenery at an event without a problem.

The bases are stable and wide enough to support reasonably long lengths of rope, but if you need to create large list areas while keeping the rope at waist height, you might want to build more than six of these. (At their first event, when used to construct a single 600-square-foot enclosure, we had to supplement them with a few additional posts to ensure that eager spectators pushing against the rope didn’t topple onto the field.)

I made the holes on the top of the posts a little too close to the ends. The holes I drilled were about 0.75″ from the end, but moving it a half inch lower as suggested in the instructions above (and making the rope loops an inch or so longer to match) would have provided more room to loop a cord around the top of the post.

1/4″ rope: about 15′ of 3/8″ braided poly “derby” rope (used for two handles on each shelf, plus four retaining links for pegs used to pin legs to top shelf and feet, with the remainder used to wrap around the packaged unit for transport)

16 thin nails about 1.25″ long, to be driven through sides to pin rope handles.

Wood stain and protective finish.

Steps

Start by building the six pieces of the rack, then finish them and attach the ropes.

Feet

Make two identical sets, each:

2 bars 1×3 @ 18” long with two corners rounded off

2 spacers 1×3 @ 1.25” long

2 bottoms 1×3 @ 2.25” long

Sandwich spacers between the bars, exactly 3.5” apart (use a piece of 1×4 to assure spacing and squareness), attach them with glue, and clamp until dry.

The glue is probably strong enough, but optionally reinforce with small nails, or with pegs by drilling a pair of 1/4″ holes through the sandwich of feet and spacer on each side and gluing in a piece of dowel.

Place bottoms at outer edge of feet and attach with glue.

Drill a 3/4” hole exactly centered in each bar.

Legs

Make two identical sets, each:

1 bar 1×4 @ 25” long

2 supports 1×4 @ 1.25” long

Place the supports 2.5” from one end and 5” from the other and attach with glue.

The glue is probably strong enough, but optionally reinforce with small nails, or with pegs by drilling a pair of 1/4″ holes through the legs and support on each side and gluing in a piece of dowel.

Drill a 3/4” hole exactly centered in each end, by feeding it through the open space in an assembled foot unit and using the holes there as a guide.

Top

Make one set, with:

2 rails 1×3 @ 25”

4 end spacers 1×4 @ 2.5”

2 dowels 3/4” @ 3.5”

Sandwich two of the end spacers between the longer rails and attach with glue.

The glue is probably strong enough, but optionally reinforce with small nails, or with pegs by drilling a 1/4″ hole through each end of the rails into the side of the spacer and gluing in a piece of dowel.

Fit the other two end spacers 3/4” away from the outer pieces (use a spare piece of 1×3 or 1×4 to assure spacing) and attach with glue.

Fit the two pieces of dowel between the rails to evenly divide the center into three regions and glue them in place. Reinforce with small nails or pegs. (Alternately you could use five pieces of dowel and separate it into six equal spaces.)

Drill three 1/4″ holes in the top of each rail, apply some glue, and tap lengths of dowel into place to serve as hanging hooks.

Drill a 3/4” hole exactly centered in each end, passing through both end pieces.

Bottom

Make one set, with:

2 rails 1×3 @ 25”

2 end spacers 1×4 @ 2.5”

3 bottom pieces 1×4” @ 1”, 3.5”, and 15”

Sandwich the end spacers between the longer rails and attach with glue.

The glue is probably strong enough, but optionally reinforce with small nails, or with pegs by drilling a 1/4″ hole through each end of the rails into the side of the spacer and gluing in a piece of dowel.

Fit the 1” bottom piece 3/4” away from one end (use a spare piece of 1×3 or 1×4 to assure spacing) and attach with glue.

Do the same thing with the 3.5” piece on the other side.

Lastly place the longer bottom piece evenly between the other two. There should be 1.25″ gaps created between the pieces, which should line up with the support brackets on the side of the leg pieces, but you may need to sand or file the bottom pieces slightly to ensure they fit.

Finishing

Cut four removable pegs from the 3/4″ dowel, each 3″ long.

Sand all of the external surfaces and apply a stain, oil, or other protective finish.

Drill a pair of 3/8″ holes on each side of the top piece. Cut two pieces of rope each 12″ long, apply glue to the ends and feed into the holes, then tap small nails through the sides to hold them in place.

Repeat this process for the bottom piece.

Drill a 3/8″ hole in the each of the supports on each leg, and drill a similar hole through one end of the removable pegs. Cut four pieces of rope, two about 6″ long and two about 12″, apply glue to the ends and feed into the holes, then tap small nails through the sides to hold them in place. (Make sure that the ropes are just long enough that the pegs can be easily inserted through the holes on the end of the legs.)

Stacking for Transport

The pieces can be stacked together to form a single package.

The resulting bundle is 25″x5″x7″. You can use a piece of rope to fasten it together and create a carrying strap.

Field Setup

Here’s Alex at Pennsic bringing out the packaged unit at our camp site.

You can see how the carrying strap also keeps the package tied together.

Slip the rope loops off each end of the bundle and separate the top and bottom:

Unpack all of the pieces and spread them out on the ground:

Set the feet upright and place the bottom shelf on them with their holes aligned.

Slide a leg down through the bottom shelf into the foot on each side, with the supports on the outside.

I usually drape the carrying rope around the legs at this point to ensure it doesn’t get lost.

Slide the top onto the legs.

Find the lower peg on each side and slide it through the holes on the foot and leg to lock them in place.

Repeat this process with the pegs on the top.

The stand is now complete.

Load it up with weapons.

You can hang shields and smaller weapons on the pegs on the top.

Evaluation

The stand required a bunch of work to build, but looks great.

It’s large enough to hold all of a fighter’s active weapons and shields plus a few extras, but when we bring loaner gear to an event it quickly gets overwhelmed. It’s still much better than nothing, as the extra weapons can be leaned up against the outside.

When it’s packaged together, there’s a gap of an inch between the top and bottom sections, and I wish it fit more snugly. Bulding the bottom section out of 1×4 rails rather than 1×3 would have eliminated that gap.

]]>http://simplethings.cavalletto.org/youth-weapons-stand/feed/0A Bender Tenthttp://simplethings.cavalletto.org/bender-tent/
http://simplethings.cavalletto.org/bender-tent/#commentsMon, 25 Aug 2014 04:00:07 +0000http://simplethings.cavalletto.org.nmsrv.com/?p=10Continue reading A Bender Tent]]>Editor’s Note: This writeup was originally posted to LiveJournal in 2014, and then migrated here when I set up this site. I’ve since added a few more notes and pictures.

Building A Bender for Pennsic: A DIY Tent Using a Timeless Design

This summer we built a simple but spacious tent for use at Pennsic, an SCA medieval camping event held annually in late July near Pittsburgh.

Below I outline the historical and contemporary sources we used for the tent design, detail the materials we used, and describe the construction process we followed, with photographs of the finished result.

Objectives

Our tent design choice followed from several criteria:

We wanted something we could build ourselves with only a few days of preparation, put up for two weeks at Pennsic, then store for 50 weeks of each year before being set up again.

We wanted something distinctive, not one of the pavilions and wall tents that are pervasive at Pennsic.

We wanted it to suggest a family of villagers camping at the annual fair, not a noble household or a military encampment.

It should be reasonably period in appearance, meaning that we would use modern tools and materials, but hoped to not stray too far from the forms that might plausibly have been found in a Welsh village a thousand years ago.

We needed a large space for use by two people for two weeks, to serve both as our bedroom/dressing room and also as a sitting room on rainy days, with lots of headroom so that we could both walk around inside comfortably without ducking down.

We settled on a “bender” design, using poles bent into an arch and half-dome, with canvas draped over them.

Although not common at SCA events, this type of tent has both an ancient history and a modern DIY tradition, outlined below.

References

I looked at hundreds of different tent designs in the course of coming up with this plan.

Historical Precedents

Arched and domed tents were used by the early Celts of the British Isles and by medieval Europeans.

Celts

Bender tents are part of traditional Celtic culture.

“Benders are probably the simplest form of shelter and these have been a traditional form of Celtic abode for many centuries.” — Celtic Heritage Trust

The recipe for their construction is straightforward:

To build the frame you will need to find some coppice wood that is about 2 inches in diameter at the base. The best wood to use is hazel but willow, ash or even sycamore will do. The number you require depends on the size of your structure, fifteen should do it. …

… there are many ways you can arrange the poles to make a complete frame on which to put your canvas. They can be placed so they all meet in the middle like a star pattern … This is best if constructing a round bender. Or you can go for a ‘rib cage’ type design taking the side poles over the main length pole at evenly spaced intervals. More suitable for an oblong design. …

Keep adding poles wherever looks necessary until happy that it’s plenty sturdy enough and is a good dome shape with no gaps big enough that water will collect in the canvas. You should be able to hold on and hang your full weight from the center of a good bender frame.

However, it is seemingly impossible to find these types of shelters displayed in period illustrations, both because they were unexceptional and because they were not used by the elite members of society.

Early Welsh literature is silent on the typical styles of tents used in Wales during the medieval period.

“As far as I am aware, there are no physical artifacts or even period artistic representations that could shed light on the subject of Welsh tents. … What we don’t know, from this information, is what shape the tents would take. How would they be supported? Would special fabric be used or would they be made of fabric designed for other purposes? Would poles by cut on site or carried along? Or would living trees be bent and tied and covered in some fashion? At this point, the construction of native Welsh tents can be nothing but speculation. ” — Some Data on the Use and Nature of Tents in Medieval Wales

A description of a Scottish military camp does survive from the 1500s, in which most tents are small one-person benders of canvas draped over two arches made of joined poles.

“I do not exactly know the Scottish mode of encampment in 1513, but Patten gives a curious description of that which he saw after the battle of Pinkey, in 1547: — ‘Here now, to say somewhat of the manner of their camp. As they had no pavilions, or round houses, of any commendable compass, so wear there few other tentes with posts, as the used manner of making is; and of these few also, none of above twenty foot length, but most far under… These white ridges … we found it a linen drapery, of the coarser cambryk in dede, for it was all of canvas sheets, and wear the tenticles, or rather cabyns and couches of their soldiers; the which (much after the common building of their country beside) had they framed of four sticks, about an ell long a piece, whereof two fastened together at one end aloft, and the other two ends beneath stuck in the ground, an ell asunder, standing in fashion like the bowes of a sowes yoke; over two such bowes (one, as it were, at their head, the other at their feet) they stretched a sheet down on both sides, whereby their cabin became roofed like a ridge, but skant shut at both ends, and not very close beneath on the sides, unless their sticks were the shorter, or their wives the more liberal to lend them larger napery; howbeit, when they had lined the, and stuff’d them so thick with straw, with the weather as it was not very cold, when they wear ones couched, they were as warm as they had been wrapt in horses dung.” — Patten’s Account of Somerset’s Expedition, 1547; quoted in the Appendix to Marmion, 1855, Page 169, Note 3F, by J. W. Lake; in turn quoted in Ancient and Modern Britons: A Retrospect, Volume 1, 1884, page 169.

Medieval Europe

Medieval European merchants used arched tents as temporary shelters at fairs.

Coryn Weigle, who makes tents for Medieval Miscellany … cites a letter written by a merchant guild to a town. The guild was no longer going to patronize the town’s fairs, the letter said, because there was getting to be a scarcity of available saplings in the area and the merchants weren’t happy about bring in their own.

… These booths were essentially semi-cylindrical structures, like a cloth Quonset hut, with the display area on one end and probably a private entrance in the back. The saplings were undoubtedly used to form the ribs of the structure.” — Dragonwing Tents

Roma

The Roma of the British Isles continued to used benders into the twentieth century.

The classic Roma bender is an arched tunnel with a closed end and a purpose-made ridgepole with drilled holes.

To make a bender tent, cut a dozen lengths of supple tree branches about ten feet long. The ends of ten of the branches are stuck into the ground in two rows of five, at two-foot intervals…

For the ridge pole, take a length of 2×4, about eight feet in length, and drill four sets of double holes at intervals along its length …

The tops of the side poles are then pushed into the ridge pole. The other two long poles are placed at one end (what will be the closed end of the bender) and bent over and lodged through the first two side poles.

This is your basic framework. Now throw tarps or even old blankets over this framework to cover it. To join the blankets, and to fasten them to the end poles, slits are cut in them and pieces of wood pushed through…. ” — Instructions for making a bender tent

These are well documented in photographs:

Numerous variations were possible:

Often a foretent called a balk was created at the front to protect the fire or charcoal brazier, essential both for cooking and warmth. Sometimes two benders were set facing each other and were joined by a balk in the middle with a vent hole for smoke above. Usually the tents were about 5′ high but the largest might be 20′ long, 12′ wide, and 10′ high.” — Bender Tents, Romany Wales Project

Here are some designs with balks; some of these benders seem to lack the ridgepole:

Global Variations

Many varieties of arched and domed tents are used around the world.

Central Asia

Arched tents were also used by nomads in Central Asia, including Iran and Afghanistan.

… the tunnel tent, appears from its wide distribution to be the oldest in the region … it has a frame that stands independently of its covering, consisting of a series of bentwood arches (benders) standing parallel to one another, and sometimes traversed by a second system of arches running at right angles to the first..” — Tents. Variety, Construction, and Use, Encylopedia Iranica

There’s also a circular domed version that’s still in use in Iran called an “alachigh” where the poles are all brought to the center and inserted into a central ring like the ones used in a ger or yurt.

South Asia

This same semi-cylindrical arch style also shows up in a number of permanent non-tent dwellings, such as the traditional “Arsh” houses of the Toda people of South Asia, which use stone end walls, bamboo beams and rattan bent to form the side walls, which are then thatched with grass.

North America

Modern References

Backpacking Tents

Arched dome and tunnel shapes with flexed poles are now the standard for modern backpacking tents, having largely replaced tents with rigid straight poles.

Quonset Shelters

Durring World Wars I and II, metal-skinned arched tunnel shelters such as the Quonset Hut were used extensively for military shelters. This design was later adapted for use with cloth covers, and continues to be used in military and emergency-response settings.

Agricultural Tunnels

Arched tunnels are used as low-cost greenhouses. So-called “low tunnels” cover a single row of crops, while “high tunnels” can be dozens of feet wide and hundreds of feet long. Large installations are constructed from metal, while simple DIY versions can be built with wood or PVC. Various weights of plastic sheeting are used as covers.

Burning Man

Arched tunnels are used for shade and dust protection at Burning Man, and numerous DIY guides are available showing variations on the construction technique.

One of the most refined versions of this is the “Zook Arch”, a large tunnel using PVC poles, poly webbing, and vinyl tarps. The construction page includes some very helpful techniques we adopted in our design.

Cairistiona Bhan and Seumas, Last of Gyver, built a lovely Celtic bender using hickory poles and canvas. I didn’t encounter these images until after ours was built, but theirs is truly inspirational.

Posted to the SCA Celts and Early Period group on Facebook by Christie Cartee‎Photo from Pennsic 2007 posted by Angela and Steven

Construction Supplies

The cost for the materials was a bit over $300; $200 for the canvas (at $5/yard), $60 for the PVC poles ($3.50 each), $24 for the rebar ($1.50 each), $19 for 100 yards of webbing, $9 for YKK triglide slides, and $24 for a grommet and punch kit.

Poles

16x 10′ 1″ schedule 40 PVC Pipe

1x 10′ 1.25″ schedule 40 PVC Pipe; double-check to ensure that this fits over the outside of the 1″ pipe with a little wiggle room.

10x sheets of sandpaper, assorted grits 60-120

A pair of thin disposable plastic gloves, like those used for hair dyes, first aid, or dishwashing.

Rigging

Tools

A saw, to cut the PVC; I used a small hand-held power jigsaw, or you could use a manual hacksaw.

A power drill and 1/4″ drill bit.

A sewing machine, to seam canvas together; this needs to be a sturdy unit to handle the heavy fabric, but doesn’t need to have any fancy features or attachments.

A tape measure.

A heavy hammer, to drive rebar and install grommets; I used a 3LB hammer.

A pair of scissors.

A lighter, to melt the ends of the poly webbing to prevent it from unravelling.

A platform to stand on, such as a stepladder or crate; we used a Yeti cooler.

Preparation

We spent much of two days preparing the materials before heading to the camp site.

Poles

We used a technique found on PVCWorkshop.com to apply a wood-grain pattern to the pipes.

First, sand the pipes. Tear sheets of sandpaper into halves, or another workable size. Wrap around the pipe. Sand pipes along their lengths, starting with the rougher grit sandpaper and progressing to the finer grit. Sand until the shiny surface has been stripped off and the size and branding mill marks printed on the pipe are no longer visible. Brush off any lingering dust.

Staining the pipes is messy, so find an outdoor location, or cover a large work area with plastic drop cloths. Put on the plastic gloves. You can dip your gloved fingers directly into the stain, or optionally use a paper towel folded into a wad, or a disposable sponge, or an old rag to dip into the stain. Wipe stain onto the pipe, roughly covering the full length, then streak it by wrapping your gloved fingers around the pipe and pulling them lengthwise along it. Creases in the gloves, combined with the scratches left by the sandpaper, will create a wood-grain appearance. Experiment with different hand positions and motions until you get a look you like. Overlapping swipes and small twists of your hand can combine to suggest the burl of unevenly-growing wood. Minor variations will make some pipes darker or lighter than the others. Lean stained poles against a wall or fence to dry for several hours or overnight.

Couplers

Use a saw to cut the one length of 1.25″ pipe into pieces: six pieces 1′ long, plus four pieces 7″ long. Optionally, wipe a bit of stain on the newly-exposed cut ends; or you could try cutting these first and then stain each piece separately.

Drill a hole all the way through each of the cut pieces using a 1/4″ drill bit. The hole should be in the middle of the 1′ lengths, and 1″ away from one end of the 7″ lengths. Clear any detritus out of the holes.

Cut ten pieces of webbing 1′ long, and seal the ends by passing them back and forth in the flame of the lighter for about ten seconds or so until the threads shrivel up. When they’ve cooled, twist them and feed them through the holes, then bring the ends around and tie them together. This bit of webbing will keep the pole ends from sliding through the coupler, and will allow you to tie other straps securely to the coupler.

(Update: I rebuilt some of these couplers in 2016 and found that paracord works just as well here, and allows use of a slightly smaller drill bit.)

Canvas

Cut the canvas into appropriate lengths. The main span of the tent will be 20′, but you will want some extra to account for shrinkage after it gets wet, and the remainder can be folded under to act as a mudflap and compensate for any unevenness in the ground. We used 24′, which was more than needed because our canvas didn’t shrink as much as we feared; 22′ might be sufficient. You will also need two shorter pieces to hang along the curved back end. We used 14′ lengths for these, but 13′ should be sufficient.

Cut two pieces of the long length, and four of the shorter length, and then join pairs of pieces together with a flat (lap?) felled seam. Feeding 16+ pounds of canvas through a sewing machine can be awkward. Having a second person available to help position the fabric makes it a bit easier. It helps if you place the sewing machine on or next to a large table so you can slide the fabric along. If the weight of the canvas pulls the fabric off of the table, you may want to place a weight on it so that it doesn’t slide. We used binder clips instead of pins to hold the pieces of fabric together.

Install grommets along the outside edges of each joined piece of canvas.

Setup

Select a mostly-flat site large enough for the tent’s 12′ x 16′ footprint.

Stakes

Begin setup by pounding in a rebar stake where each of the poles should go.

Use a heavy hammer to drive in the rebar stakes. Consider protecting yourself with heavy leather gloves and safety goggles if available. Caution people in the area about the the rebar stakes, which often have sharp jagged edges; until they have the poles slid over them you’ll want to be very careful not to cut your shin open on one of them.

The rebar should be driven vertically, and pounded more than half way into the ground. You want the stakes to be positioned accurately so , but if you hit a rock in one spot you can pull the stake back out, shift it over an inch or so and try again.

Measure out a 10′ straight line that will form one side of the tent, and place rebar stakes at the 0′, 2.5′, 5′, 7.5′, and 10′ marks.

Measure out a second 10′ straight line, parallel with the first and 12′ away from it. Confirm the lines are parallel by measuring both diagonals, which should be 15′ 7.5″. Pound in five stakes at the 0′, 2.5′, 5′, 7.5′, and 10′ marks.

Lastly, place the five stakes in the back curve. Locate the center point of the back 12′ line, then pound in five stakes each 6′ away from there, evenly spaced about 3′ 1.5″ away from each other.

Run a line of webbing around the sides and back of the tent, tieing it to each stake, leaving an extra foot of slack between each pair of stakes. (Later, you can use this sawline to anchor additional webbing thrown over the top of the tent.)

This diagram illustrates the positions of the stakes (black circles) and where the posts will be placed (brown lines):

Poles

Use a coupler piece to connect two poles by sliding it over their ends. Slide one one end of it down over a rebar stake, then bend the other end down and slide it over the matching stake on the other side. Repeat for all five ribs.

Form the spine by joining two poles in the same way. Position the spine underneath the ribs, then raise it up and slide the far end on to the center back stake.

Drag something into the middle of the tent that you can use as a platform to reach the ribs overhead.

Use short 18″-24″ lengths of webbing to tie the spine to the ribs where they cross. Make sure that the ribs are evenly spaced along the top of the spine, and are tied tightly so they will not slide around.

Set up the last four ribs around the back end. Slide a short coupler piece over one end of a pole, and slide the other end of the post onto one of the remaining stakes. Bend the pole down and tuck the short coupler piece under the center of the last rib. Use short lengths of webbing to tie them to the crossing point.

Webbing

Use a few lines of webbing passing through the ribs at an angle to make the structure more rigid.

Carefully slide posts part way up the rebar stake to allow you to loop the webbing around the bottom of the stake, then slide the post back down to trap the webbing below it.

Tie a webbing line at the foot of the fourth rib and angle it up and forwards, looping it around ribs three and two before reaching the center of the first rib where it crosses the spine, then angling back down to the foot of the fourth rib on the other side. Draw the webbing tight and tie it off.

Repeat with another webbing line at the same angle, placed two ribs further back.

Add a webbing line that angles back from the foot of the fifth rib, up and around the back curve, then back down to the foot of the fifth rib on the other side.

Canvas

Place the two long piece of canvas outside the tent along one straight wall, and the two shorter pieces of canvas along the back curve.

Stand on the platform and hoist one of the shorter pieces up and over the top of the ribs and spine. Adjust the canvas so that the edge reaches the ground along one side of the back curve. Tie webbing straps to the the grommets and stretch them down over the ribs to anchor the other end around the stake under one of the pole ends.

Then hoist up the second shorter piece of canvas and position it in the same way.

Finally, stretch the large piece of canvas over the ribs in the main body of the tent.

Adjust the position of the three pieces of canvas to minimize gaps around the edge. Smooth out the canvas, adding some folds or pleats where needed and ensuring that those pleats will not channel water into the tent.

Use webbing to fasten the canvas into place and draw it taut.

Hang curtains across the front, and move your possessions into the tent.

Storage

Taking down the tent is straightforward.

Loosen the straps that hold the canvas in place.

Take down the canvas and fold it for storage. Make sure the canvas is dry before storing it or it may mildew or rot and be unusable next year.

Remove the webbing straps that hold the ribs and spine together.

Remove the poles by sliding them up off of the rebar stakes. (Remember that they’re under tension, so be careful that they don’t spring up unexpectedly and hit you in the face!) Take down the rear ribs, then the spine and lastly the side ribs, separating the poles and couplers.

Lastly, remove the stakes. (Remember that they’re sharp, so warn people to avoid them until they’re out of the ground.) Loosen the stakes by hitting them a couple of times with the hammer from each side, then use a heavy leather glove to pull them out.

Evaluation

We were very happy with the design of the tent frame. The tent doesn’t require a central pole inside the tent area, nor does it need any guy lines outside of it. It covers about 175 square feet of space, most of which is tall enough to stand in.

We used untreated canvas and were pleased with its coverage in the several heavy rainstorms we experienced. As is typical with brand-new canvas tents, there were minor drips during the first hour of rain, but those ended as the fabric swelled and shrunk, and did not reoccur in subsequent downpours. (If you had a yard big enough to set up the tent at home, you could pre-season the tent by soaking it with a hose and letting it dry, to avoid this issue on your first rainstorm in the field.)

We look forward to using this tent again next year.

Postscript, 2015

The main change we made this year was to add another piece of canvas along the back of the curve to allow for a greater overlap — the previous setup included just enough canvas for the edges to meet if they were held just exactly right, but inevitably they would end up gapping by a little bit. Adding another piece of canvas in the back helped to solve this problem.

Also, we ended up not using the tensioning straps over the top of the tent or the sawline strap (running around the bottom edge of the tent) — this is a key part of the Burning Man “Zook Arch” design, but they’re using lighter material than our heavy canvas, and they have to deal with much higher winds than we have at Pennsic. We’re in a very sheltered location, and didn’t have any problems with the canvas flapping around.

We replaced the curtains across the front opening with a double layer of mosquito netting — admittedly not period, but it provided enough privacy for our location while allowing for some air circulation.

Here’s another photo showing the interior:

Postscript, 2017

This year we moved out of our former site in Dagan’s Dell and down to a camp on Chandler’s Road near Via Chingis. With the additional wind exposure in this location we found that we did need to throw a couple of tensioning straps over the top to keep the sides of the canvas from blowing upwards in the wind.

We also found that the mosquito netting on our front door was an insufficient barrier to stop rain from blowing in and afternoon sun from angling into the back of the tent, neither of which had been a problem in our former location. We hung some additional fabric across the doorway and we’ll aim to rig up a more-secure set of door flaps for next year.

Other than that, the tent has continued to hold up fairly well through its fourth year. There was one area of the canvas which dripped during the worst rainstorms that’ll need to have a little water sealant applied or a second layer of canvas thrown over it.

A Possible Variation

I’ve been considering building another one of these tents for another group in our household, and figured I would make the cylindrical section a little longer and omit the rounded end.

You could then choose to either have doors on both ends, or seal off one end with a solid piece of canvas and have an entrance only on the other end.

This would simplify construction and setup — getting the rounded section laid out correctly, binding the free ends of the poles at the top, and adjusting the canvas to cover the rounded end all definitely require a disproportionate amount of work, and because the headroom in the curved end is reduced, it adds less usable space than the floor plan might suggest.

The rounded end provides some lateral stability, so that the arches don’t wobble towards one end and then the other, but it turns out that the diagonal webbing lines also effectively address that issue.

By “diagonal webbing lines” I mean the straps (or ropes) that angle from the foot of one arch over to the top of another and then back down on the other side. In our construction shown above, these only angle in one direction, because the arches of the rounded end resist movement in the other direction.

If you omit the rounded end, you’d want to send at least one of those diagonal straps in both directions, and maybe a pair in each direction, along the lines shown below.

Another Interpretation

At Pennsic XLVI (2017) I was pleased to note that one of our neighbors in an adjacent camp had constructed a bender of their own.

Jason Pedicord and his wife Lenore used the notes on this site as a starting point in designing their own bender, with great results. They worked with a local Panther distributor to put together a custom canvas stitching order for a set of three overlapping panels and two end flaps with integrated ties along their length that simplify the process of attaching the canvas to the poles.

They kindly gave me a tour and granted permission to share a couple of photos of their shelter:

They use a Romani-style ridge pole, which has also proved useful during setup as it allows them to quickly mark the locations for the rib poles on each side without tediously measuring the distances between them. The integrated ties are a particularly nice touch, as they allow the canvas panels to be fastened to the rib poles without additional webbing lines, as well as tied to each other, and can support items such as lanterns and clothing rods being hung from the inside.

Get In Touch

Please feel free to contact me or comment below if you have any feedback or questions about this style of tent. I look forward to seeing more of these tents on the field, and would be glad to chat with you if you’re interested in building one of your own.